US jobless data: how has unemployment changed under Obama?

The US jobless figures are out today and show American unemployment getting better.

The US added another 243,000 jobs last month, the biggest gain since April. The jobless figure is the lowest it has been since February 2009.Employment grew in December and the jobless rate ‘dropped’ to a near three-year low of 8.5% – although a fall of 0.1%-points is really a static figure, rather than a big fall.

• 12.8m people are unemployed• The unemployment rate has declined by 0.8%-points since August• The unemployment rate for men is down to 7.7% in December• Rates for other groups are:Women, 7.7% Teenagers, 23.2%White, 7.4%Black, 13.6%Hispanic, 10.5%Asian, 6.7%• The number of long-term unemployed (for 27 weeks or more) was little changed at 5.5m and accounted for 42.9% of unemployed people

No US president since FDR has won an election with unemployment this high. This shows what’s happened since January 2009, when President Obama took over: